Broken Relationships
by BlackFox12
Summary: Caroline seeks out Damon's help with Matt after the episode 'The House Guest'. Contains spanking. Co-written with Jet


**Broken Relationships**

**Disclaimer:** We don't own anything from Vampire Diaries and aren't making any money from this fic

**Summary:** Caroline seeks out Damon's help with Matt after the episode 'The House Guest'. Contains spanking

**Warning(s):** Spoilers, spanking, some mentions of violence

**Authors:** BlackFox12 and Jet

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><p>Caroline stood alone in the hallway of her house, staring at the door that Matt had just gone out of. It took her a few moments to realise that her eyes were wet and she wiped the back of her hand across them, moisture staining her skin. She almost couldn't believe how much things had changed. A part of her was still holding onto the hope that this wasn't the end; that it didn't have to be.<p>

Caroline's mind kept circling round and round to one point - that there was really only one person she could ask for help from. She left her house, making her way to the mansion, hoping that Damon would be there.

Damon lay in his bed and stared up at the ceiling. He told himself he was pissed and full of hatred for Katherine, but deep down, he knew he was more hurt than anything else. How could she have set him up to die? He'd spent years pining for her and the whole time, she cared nothing for him. Just like Elena, she only had eyes for Stefan.

Giving up on the idea of sleep, Damon grabbed a clean pair of jeans and went to the living room to drink his self pity away. As soon as he'd poured himself a drink, he heard a knock on the front door. Expecting it to be some kind of bad news, Damon downed the shot, set the glass down, and went to open the door.

"Caroline?"

Caroline was pretty sure that she'd managed to wipe the tears away and make herself look presentable again, but she wasn't sure the desperation had left her face. "Damon... you have to help me," she said. "You have to speak to Matt." She wasn't sure she wanted to go into too many details - but she knew she needed help. "Matt knows..."

Damon quickly decided dealing with someone else's problem would be much better than thinking about his own. He opened the door wider to let her in and said, "Matt knows what?"

Caroline stepped into the mansion. "He got hurt. I gave him some of my blood to heal him and he freaked out... He thinks I had something to do with Vicki's death. You have to tell him the truth! Please."

He closed the door behind her and stared at her in disbelief. "You gave him your blood?" he yelled. "What the hell were you thinking? You can't let people find out about us, Caroline! Not if you want to live for any length of time."

"He was going to die!" Caroline protested. "I couldn't let that happen!" She realised she was close to tears again and fought to keep them down. It helped that she was angry - but maybe she shouldn't have thought Damon could ever understand.

He could see how upset she was and struggled to keep his temper in check until he got the facts. "Did anyone else see you?"

Caroline shook her head. "No. I was careful." Her vision blurred a little as more tears pricked at her eyes. "I couldn't just let him die."

Seeing her eyes filling, Damon said gently, "I need you to focus so we can clean this mess up, Caroline. What did you tell him exactly? What does he know about Vicki?"

Caroline struggled to pull herself together. "My face changed and he saw it. I told him that my blood healed him and that I'm a vampire and he freaked out. He thought I hurt Vicki... I tried to tell him the truth and stop him leaving, but I couldn't."

"It's been my experiance that very few people can handle knowing about us, which is why we told you to keep quiet about it." He gave her a pointed look and continued, "But it's easy enough to fix as long as he hasn't told anyone. I'll just compel him to forget what he knows.

It took a moment or two for Caroline to realise what Damon meant - and when she did, she quickly shook her head. "No! You can't make him forget..." She didn't know how to say what she was thinking. "He won't tell anyone..." She hoped he wouldn't tell anyone.

"How can you be so naive, Caroline?" he asked incredulously. "You can't predict what someone will do with that kind of information. Your own mother couldn't handle knowing what you were; why on earth would you think Matt would be any different?"

"I love him," Caroline said in a low voice. "And I know he cares about me too." She spoke with somewhat shaky confidence, her mind showing her images of how Matt had reacted to what had happened. But surely this was a small thing for him to deal with... all he needed was to realise that she hadn't had anything to do with Vicki's death.

"He cared about you when he thought you were human. And once I make him forget what you are, the two of you can go right back to where you left off. Trust me, it's the best option here."

Caroline hesitated, feeling her resolve beginning to waver. "I... maybe you're right. You won't do anything else, will you?"

Damon rolled his eyes. "Sure. I won't do anything else to him." He put a hand in the middle of Caroline's back and started to lead her into the living room.

Caroline stopped, not wanting to go and sit down or whatever. "Wait. I want to go with you," she said.

Not for the first time, he missed being able to compel her to do whatever he wanted. He crossed his arms and gave her a flat out, "No."

Caroline frowned and shook her head, a stubborn set to her jaw. "Why not? It's not like it'll make a difference to you."

He leaned into her personal space. "It will make a difference to me if you end up dead. Matt is volatile right now and he may try to hurt you. I want you to stay here until I'm done."

Caroline opened her mouth to argue, but then closed it again. She looked away briefly, still not sure she wanted to just let Damon boss her around like this - but maybe he had a point... "Fine, okay."

"I mean it, Caroline," Damon said, not sure he believed her. "I don't need any distractions while I'm talking to Matt."

"I said okay!" Caroline replied, moving away from him. "I'll stay here." She folded her arms and stalked into the living room.

Satisfied with that answer, Damon grabbed a jacket and headed out the door to find Matt, deciding to start the search at Matt's house.

Caroline originally had every intention of staying put, pacing the living room and hoping Damon would find Matt quickly. However, it didn't take long for memories and thoughts to begin intruding. Could she really trust Damon? Matt had been nothing but sweet and kind to her, whereas Damon had simply been using her since their first meeting. She had no reason to trust Damon's word - but she'd trusted Matt completely. And now she was worried.

Caroline knew she had to find Matt before Damon did.

Refusing to let her mind dwell on what she was doing, Caroline quickly left the mansion. She headed to the graveyard, figuring that was where Matt would be likely to go.

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><p>Matt was kneeling in the grass, staring at his sister's headstone. Fury and hatred pumped through his veins. The monster that had taken over Caroline's body was going to pay. It was going to pay for taking Caroline away from him. It was going to pay for killing his sister. He couldn't believe he'd actually had feelings for it. Every time he remembered the way their bodies would press together when they kissed, he felt sick to his stomach.<p>

He kept his eyes on the headstone, but his ears were focused on the world around him. He knew the monster would be coming for him. It wouldn't let him live after the things it had told him. But Matt was ready for it. In a way, he was even looking forward to the confrontation. He could avenge his sister's death and put Caroline's body to rest at the same time.

Caroline was relieved when she found Matt in the graveyard, realising that Damon hadn't yet got to him. She stepped over to Matt, unsure if she should make a sound to alert him to her presence. "Matt?" she said quietly.

Matt stayed on his knees and didn't turn to look at her, hoping that would lure her closer to him. He had no idea how strong she was, but he knew the only thing he had going for him was the element of surprise. Keeping his eyes fixed on Vicki's headstone, he said, "What do you want, Caroline?"

"I want... to talk. To explain." Caroline stepped closer to him. "Matt, please... you don't understand."

Trying to keep the look of disgust off his face, Matt slowly stood up and faced her. He put his hands in his pockets and his fingers curled around his weapons. He took a step closer so they were about a foot apart and said, "What don't I understand?"

Caroline frowned. "I didn't do anything to Vicki. And I was trying to help you! You would have died if I hadn't done anything..." She looked into his eyes, trying to convey her sincerity.

It was difficult to look in her eyes and not see the person she used to be. Matt stepped into her personal space and said softly, "You may have saved my life." Keeping eye contact to make sure Caroline wouldn't see what he was doing, he took the tazer out of his pocket. "But you killed the Caroline I knew." He jammed the tazer into her stomach and electrocuted her, hoping it would be enough to incapacitate her.

Caroline cried out as Matt tazered her, from the shock as much as the pain. She stumbled backwards, unable to catch her balance and falling heavily to the ground, staring up at him in shock. "N...No..." Her eyes gleamed with tears.

Matt yanked the wooden stake out of his other pocket and dropped down on top of her. Straddling her stomach, he put both hands on the stake, raised it high above his head and aimed for her heart, hoping the legends were true.

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><p>Damon was annoyed. He'd been to Matt's house. He'd been to The Grill where Matt worked. He'd even checked the sheriff's office to make sure Matt wasn't telling Liz what was going on. But Matt hadn't been anywhere to be found. So Damon started walking down the main street of town and tuned his hearing to the distance, hoping to hear Matt's voice. But instead of Matt's voice, he heard Caroline's.<p>

"I didn't do anything to Vicki..." he heard her say. Instantly realizing the implications of that statement, Damon took off running in their direction. He got there just in time to plow into Matt before he could stake Caroline.

The force of the impact had Matt and Damon sailing through the air. They landed ten feet away, with Damon on top. He knocked the stake out of Matt's hand, looked into his eyes and compelled him. "You don't move from this spot until I tell you to move."

As soon as he was sure Matt was staying put, Damon ran back to Caroline. He kneeled down next to her and said, "Caroline?"

Caroline looked up at Damon with tears in her eyes. It took her a few tries to be able to speak, as she was so taken aback by Matt's attack on her. "I... I thought I could m...make him understand..."

Needing to make sure she was unharmed first, Damon quickly scanned her body for blood. He didn't see any obvious wounds, but found the tazer lying on the ground next to her shoulder. He picked it up and put a gentle hand on the side of her face. "Are you hurt? Did he use this on you?"

Caroline shuddered, blinking as a couple of tears slipped out of her eyes. "He used it, b...but..." Her voice trailed off, as she was unable to put how betrayed she felt into words. "He was going to stake me..."

As soon as he realized she wasn't physically hurt, Damon became furious. He tossed the tazer on the ground and pulled her into a sitting position so they were face to face. He tried to keep his voice calm, but the volume increased with each word. "I saw what he was trying to do. I knew he might try to hurt you, which is why I TOLD you to stay at the house!"

Caroline flinched as the volume increased, looking unhappy. "I was going to! But... then I started thinking I could get through to him. And... I don't know how much I can trust you," she added.

He lowered his voice, which conveyed even more anger than the yelling had. "You don't know how much you can trust me?" He continued without pause. "I helped rescue you from the werewolves, I let you drink our blood anytime you want and I compelled your mother to forget you were a vampire so you could still live with her. If that hasn't garnered me some trust, then why did you come to me in the first place?"

"I thought you might hurt him..." Caroline flinched back even more. "I didn't know... I was going to stay, but then I got worried..."

Refusing to let her back away, he pulled her even closer to him so they were almost nose to nose. "Maybe you should be less afraid of what I'll do to him and more afraid of what I'll do to you. Let's see if a healthy dose of fear will make you listen to me next time."

Damon was already kneeling beside her with one foot on the ground, so with one swift move, he had her up and over his raised knee.

Caroline yelped, hands automatically shooting out to catch her balance. "No, wait!" she protested, beginning to struggle, panic threatening to worm its way up and choke her.

"Wait?" Damon slapped the right side of her squirming rear end. "Isn't that what you were supposed to be doing?" He put a matching slap on the left side.

Caroline cried out, continuing to try and wriggle free. "No... please don't!" The panic was still there, combining with the emotional pain as well as the physical to start a pretty good job of making Caroline feel miserable.

Being an older vampire, Damon was much stronger and had no trouble holding the squirming girl down across his knee. With grim determination, he started spanking at a fast tempo and raised his voice to be heard over the loud smacks. "When I tell you to stay put, you'd damn well better do it."

Despite her best efforts, Caroline felt the first tears springing to her eyes and leaking down her cheeks. "I will! I'm sorry!" she said, the first sob catching in her throat, just wanting to forget this day had ever happened.

He nodded to her response, even though she couldn't see him, and kept up a steady stream of swats. "And when I tell you someone is dangerous, you don't go looking for him!"

"Okay!" Caroline was beginning to get a little more frantic now, the tears continuining to fall. She'd never been spanked before and the pain and sheer humiliation - combined with her grief about Matt - was making it unbearable.

He gave her a few more swats to finish making that point and then paused for a moment. He kept her in place with a hand on her back and, with a soft voice, he said, "Being a vampire means you have to be more careful than the average teenage girl if you want to survive. If I'd gotten here even a second later..." Leaving that sentence open eneded, Damon shook his head and started spanking her with even more force than before.

Caroline started crying more now, her breath hitching in sobs. She clenched her hands into fists, struggling not to reach back. "I know... I understand..." She spoke with little pauses between each word, struggling to speak through the pain and tears.

After he'd given her twenty of the harder smacks, he stopped all together and grimaced at the sound of her tears. He'd never admit it, but he always felt the urge to comfort crying women, whether his humanity was shut out or not. In one move, he stood and pulled her up with him, so they were standing face to face.

Caroline didn't struggle, continuing to sob, her hands over her eyes. She was sore, miserable and heartsick. "No one loves me..." She hadn't meant for that to slip out, but she was hurting too much.

Those words shocked Damon. He'd thought those same words to himself so often in the past year and a half that they'd become his mantra. Immediately feeling a kinship with Caroline, he pulled her into a strong hug and said quietly, "Just give yourself a few minutes to calm down and let your body heal itself."

Automatically, Caroline held onto Damon - despite the fact that he was one of the causes of how miserable she was feeling. It took a few moments, but eventually, her sobs died down to sniffles.

Once her tears were mostly done, Damon put his hands on her shoulders and gently pushed her back a step so he could look at her face. He wiped some of her tears away with his thumb and said quietly, "We need to talk about this, but first I have to deal with Matt."

Caroline nodded, sniffling a little. "Okay..." She glanced at Matt and then quickly away again, knowing things would never be the same.

Matt was lying flat on his back, exactly where Damon had left him. From the moment Damon had told him not to move, Matt had been trying to force his body to get up and run. His panic had risen as the minutes passed and his body lay there unresponsive. His heart rate skyrocketed when he heard Damon say he was coming to deal with him.

Damon kneeled down next to Matt so he could look into his eyes and compel him. "You will forget everything Caroline told you tonight. Tomorrow morning when you wake up, you'll have a terrible hangover. Caroline came to The Grill tonight and the two of you had a fight. You went home alone and drank yourself to sleep."

Drawing his eyebrows together in concentration, Matt said, "We got in a fight. I went home and drank."

"That's right." Damon patted his back and said, "Now, you're going to walk home feeling relaxed. When you get there, you'll fall asleep as soon as you sit on the couch."

Slowly, a relaxed smile appeared on Matt's face. "I'm going to walk home and go to sleep."

Turning Matt's shoulders in the right direction, Damon gave him a light push to start him walking. Damon went back to Caroline and said, "It's done. Let's go to my house so we can talk."

Caroline hadn't watched as Damon compelled Matt, just feeling far too upset to deal with it. She stood with her arms folded across her chest, staring at the ground - but looked up as Damon walked back over to her and nodded slowly. She didn't say anything, though, and started in the direction of the mansion, feeling tired and heartsick.

The two walked in silence for a few blocks. Damon couldn't get Caroline's words out of his head. 'No one loves me.' He knew from experiance how soul crushing it was to have the person you love betray you. When they were halfway to the mansion, Damon said quietly, "I don't think you should be alone tonight."

"There's not anyone I can stay with... unless you're offering." Caroline tried to sound flippant, but was fully aware that she sounded lost more than anything else. She didn't know what to do now... even what to think. About anything.

"I was planning to insist, but you can think of it as an offer if it makes you feel better. What about your Mom? Do you need to call her and make some excuse for not coming home?"

The last thing Caroline wanted was to talk to her mom right now. "She knows my number. If she needs me, she can call me."

Damon couldn't exactly blame Caroline for not wanting to talk to her mom, especially after the things that had happened a couple of weeks ago.

The rest of the walk to the mansion was silent. When they got there, Damon opened the door and gestured for Caroline to go in first. He said, "Go have a seat on the couch. I'll bring us both some blood."

Caroline nodded and walked through to sit down on the couch in the front room. She looked around, trying not to think about what had just happened - but it was difficult not to dwell on it. Even though Damon had compelled Matt to forget, she could never act like nothing had happened. She would always have the memory of him trying to kill her.

When he came back to the living room, Damon handed Caroline a bag of blood along with a straw. He sat down next to her and took a drink of his own bag. An awkward silence fell between them, while Damon tried to decide how to start the conversation that he knew had to happen before he could get any sleep.

In the heat of the moment, he hadn't thought twice about spanking her for what she'd done. But now that he'd had some time to think it over, he realized that might not have been the best way to deal with her, given their history. He cleared his throat and said, "I want you to know that I'm sorry for the way I treated you when you were human."

Caroline took a long drink of the blood and then blinked, looking at Damon. She swallowed her mouthful. "You... want to apologise?" she said uncertainly, not sure she'd heard him right or properly understood him.

Damon tried to cover his chagrin with a small smile. "I'm out of practice, so it might not be the best, but it's sincere." He made sure he had eye contact and said, "I used you. I fed off you and compelled you to do things you hated. It was wrong of me and I'm sorry."

"It's okay," Caroline said quietly. "It's not like you were the only one." She gave a tiny, humourless smile and shrugged. "I guess I don't have a good taste in guys..."

With a frown, Damon thought that he didn't have the best taste in women either, with Katherine being the number one example. "It's not okay," Damon said. "None of it is okay. Not the way I treated you, the way your mother treated you a few weeks ago, or the way Matt treated you tonight."

"It's kind of something I've got used to," Caroline admitted. "No one's ever loved me..." She sighed, looking unhappy, but trying not to give in to her tears again. She drank some more of the blood, looking down briefly. "Everyone has all of these expectations and I can't meet them..."

It amazed Damon that Caroline's feelings matched his own so closely. Without thinking it over, he said, "Me too." He couldn't look at her anymore and said to the floor, "It started with my father when I was human. I could never meet his expectations. His disapointment was palpable. I certainly never felt as though he loved me."

Caroline glanced at him. "Kind of like me with my mom..." she said with some bitterness. "She always expected me to be something I'm not. I was never good enough for her..." She shook her head, unconsciously inching nearer to him on the couch.

Damon finished off his blood in a couple of gulps and tossed the empty bag on the side table. "Sounds like we have more in common than I thought." He leaned back onto the couch and spread his arms out along the top. "Not only did both of our parents suck, but we were both betrayed by someone we loved. Matt betrayed you and Katherine betrayed me."

"You still loved her, though?" Caroline looked at him. "Even after everything?"

He desperately wanted to say no, but that just wasn't true. "Yes. Even after she chose Stefan over me, time and time again. Even after she set me up to be killed. A part of me still loves her. Sound familiar?"

Caroline nodded slowly. "Just a little," she admitted. "I guess it's difficult with Elena, huh?"

Damon couldn't keep eye contact while talking about Elena, because his emotions for her were still too raw. Very quietly, he said, "I don't want to love her. I know I'm not the kind of man she needs. I'm not good, but she expects me to try and I find myself doing it for her almost against my will. I'm not used to being so..." The word that came to his mind was 'pathetic', but instead he said, "...swayed by emotion."

Caroline listened intently, head on one side. While Damon was speaking, she moved closer to him, so that her side was almost brushing against his. When he finished, she - without giving it any thought at all - lightly touched her lips to his.

When he saw her lean in, he was mildly confused; and when he felt her lips touch his, he was surprised. They'd kissed plenty of times when she'd been human and he'd been compelling her. They'd even slept together. But it surprised him that she'd do it of her own free will.

He leaned his head back slightly so he could focus on her eyes. He couldn't tell if she had kissed him because she wanted a temporary escape from her thoughts and feelings or if it was because she was attracted to him. But then he decided it didn't matter.

Knowing he'd probably regret it in the morning, he put a hand gently on the side of her head and pulled her in for a deeper kiss.

Caroline hadn't really thought about how Damon would react, but she leaned further in, letting her hands brace themselves on the sofa either side of him. She increased the intensity of the kiss, just letting her feelings take over.

After a few moments, Damon pulled away. He stood and held his hand out for her. "Let's move this upstairs to my room."

Caroline stood as well after slipping her hand into his. She already knew she wanted to do this and so she gave a single nod.

Once they were in Damon's room, he pulled her into another kiss, slowly moving both of their bodies towards his bed. He broke away from her mouth long enough to trail soft kisses down the side of her neck until her shirt got in the way. Needing to feel her skin, he reached a hand up under her shirt and trailed his hand from the base of her spine, up to the back of her bra.

He looked into her eyes and said, "I'm glad you came to me tonight. No matter what happens tomorrow, I'm happy that you're here with me now." He started kissing her again before she could reply and eased them both down onto the bed.

**The End  
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